By Charlotte Greenfield and Naomi Tajitsu
SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, July 21 (Reuters) - The Australian dollar steadied just above six-year lows on Tuesday, as the country's central bank reiterated its desire for a lower currency but offered little new guidance on the chance of another rate cut.
The Aussie AUD=D4 was flat at $0.7365, after bouncing from Monday's trough of $0.7328.
"You could call that consolidating, although the fact it keeps hitting new lows is not particularly encouraging," said Michael Turner, fixed income and currency strategist at RBC Capital Markets.
Minutes of the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) last policy meeting showed it felt the fall had not gone far enough, though it also noted an improvement in employment. ID:nRUALIEB8T
"It's that repetition of the statement that it's likely and necessary for the Aussie to go lower. The market dropped slightly on that, but then took it back once there was talk about the stable labour market," Turner said.
The New Zealand dollar NZD=D4 edged up 0.3 percent to $0.6589, but faced tough chart resistance around $0.6620. It rallied sharply on Monday after a plunge to a six-year low of $0.6498 last week left speculators very short of the currency.
But sellers could return en masse on Thursday when the Reserve Bank of New Zealand is widely expected to cut interest rates by 25 basis points to 3.0 percent.
The market is even pricing in a small risk of a half-point easing given tumbling dairy prices and low inflation.
"We now expect the RBNZ to cut to a record low of 2 percent by the end of the year," says Imre Speizer, senior markets strategist at Westpac.
"The next major target for the kiwi is 62 cents. The RBNZ should be in easing mode when the Fed should be in tightening mode," he added.
New Zealand government bonds 0#NZTSY= were steady with two-year yields having just touched their lowest since mid-2013 NZ2YT=RR .
Australian bond futures edged down with the three-year bond contract YTTc1 losing 3 ticks to 97.940 and the 10-year contract YTCc1 2 ticks to 97.0200. (Editing by Richard Borsuk)